Since your ecommerce site visitors are using their eyes and ears as they arrive on your storefront, podcasting offers some fresh opportunities to deliver your message. From articulating a message with audio, to enhancing an article with the addition of sound, podcasting can offer some extra benefits for the average site visitor.

Consider Podcasting for Increased Profit, Credibility, and Reach

On-demand broadcasting on the web has grown steadily over the past five years, bringing forward a unique presentation of today’s most valuable content. According to 2006 Forrester® Research studies, podcast uptakes are expected to reach almost 12 million US households by 2010. This increase in multimedia downloads will make even more content readily available on the web; so, the challenge for podcast broadcasters is having files and content easily searchable and found.

After creating and implementing your latest podcast, an essential step is optimization. You’re probably already aware of strategies and initiatives for optimizing your web content; using appropriate keywords, tagging, and setting up your articles and layout to be search-engine friendly are parts of successful online marketing.

In order for your podcasts to gain the same recognition, you’ll want to create an effective optimization strategy. This will help your podcast reach the high ranks of audio search engines, making it easy and simple for potential visitors to find your essential material. Besides submitting your piece to various podcast directories and feeds, you’ll want to take advantage of the additional optimization tactics below.

Podcast Optimization Strategy #1: Make the file attractive

Optimize your audio files. You’ll need to make sure all the tracks are accurate and working; search engines cannot locate broken files, and you’ll have a hard time tracking it down yourself. Remember that most people are going to download the file to an MP3 player or other media playing device, and you want this process to be straightforward and the file to easily downloadable. You’ll find quality tools available for download online; Audacity is free, and can help with encoding and compressing your files. Other programs can help you streamline your file to make it easy to download and share.

Podcast Optimization Strategy #2: Less is more

You’ll need to make your podcast easy to find. Many podcast publishers make the mistake of creating excessive feeds in hopes of reaching higher search engine placement. This strategy can backfire, since search engines like Google™ are now being programmed to find relevant and appropriate content. If your podcast is being distributed through too many articles, networks, or websites, it may have a lower chance of being recognized.

Podcast Optimization Strategy #3: The power of tags

Keep in mind that podcast search engines work in a very similar style as traditional search engines. Web crawlers are designed to trace all rich media content files with specific features; tagging can help tremendously, and will give you the added leverage you need for higher search engine rankings.

Each type of feed you select to share your file can be distributed in a unique way. Remember that you need to create a new one for each mode of distribution; iTunes will require it’s own unique channel, and you might need to do some research on creating appropriate RSS-friendly content.

If you can create an individual landing page for each file, you can increase your search engine rankings in two ways: through both the audio search, and regular text search. Adding the title of your podcast file into the landing page URL will also help you reach the higher rankings on most standard search engines. Including a player on this landing page, or link to download one, can improve visitor interest and site visibility as well.

Podcast Optimization Strategy #6: Embed content with metadata

This is especially significant if you are creating a landing page for the file; metadata can help increase your chances of pickup from major search engines, and a simple list of keywords and phrases inserted into the file is all it takes. iTunes® has its own format for publishing this information, and most platforms will require that you include a descriptive title, notes, and other keywords.

Podcast Optimization Strategy #7: Transcribe your podcast

If possible, script out the podcast itself and include this on your landing page. Not only will the keyword counts be increased dramatically, but you’ll have a dual opportunity for search engine crawlers: content-related searches, and audio search. A summary works well also, if you’d rather not include the entire piece.

Get Found!

The ever-changing web offers more dynamic content, day after day. Podcasting has created a new segment in website publishing, incorporating the power of audio. Now that MP3 owners and other media outlets give us new opportunities to publish and share, quality content, distribution is a high priority. Making podcast files findable on the web is possible with the right tools and optimization strategy in place.